Dan Haren hasn’t had the smoothest start to the season, but he was in vintage form tonight against the division rival Braves, tossing eight innings of one-run ball as part of a 3-1 victory. The victory gave Washington a split of the four-game series and pushed the club back over .500 at 15-14.

Haren limited the Braves to just four hits on the night, with the lone run scoring on a solo homer by Dan Uggla in the bottom of the seventh inning. The veteran right-hander was very efficient, throwing 62 out of 91 pitches for strikes while issuing just one walk and notching four strikeouts. Rafael Soriano worked around a two-out single in the ninth for his ninth save.

Denard Span led the charge for the offense, going 3-for-4 with a walk. After he doubled and came around to score on a single by Steve Lombardozzi in the first inning, he delivered a two-run double one inning later. Kris Medlen, Cody Gearrin and Jordan Walden shut down the Nats’ offense the rest of the way, but that was all the support Haren needed.

This was the first time this season that Haren pitched past the sixth inning. It was also the first time that he had thrown at least eight innings in a start since May 24 of last year, a span of 25 outings. There’s reason for optimism with his last two starts, though, as he has allowed just three runs in 14 innings to improve his ERA to 5.01. Not bad considering that he was touched up for 19 runs (15 earned) in 18 1/3 innings over his first four starts. If Haren can get going again, this rotation has the potential to be very, very dangerous.

Tempers flared between the Astros and Rangers on Monday in Arlington. In the bottom of the second inning, Astros starter Collin McHugh threw a first-pitch fastball inside to Rangers outfielder Carlos Gomez. Gomez didn’t like it, so he stared at McHugh for a few seconds. Gomez fouled off the next pitch and jawed at McHugh before taking a few steps towards the mound. McHugh came in and the benches emptied. Fortunately, order was quickly restored and both teams were issued warnings.

The Astros and Rangers had a benches-clearing incident earlier this season as well. In a game in Houston on May 1, Astros starter Lance McCullers threw inside to Mike Napoli, which caused the benches to spill out onto the field. McHugh also hit Gomez with a first pitch fastball in the second inning on August 31 and Mike Fiers did the same in the second inning on August 12. As a result, Gomez thinks the Astros have it out for him. Via Levi Weaver of WFAA Sports:

The second pitch, he took a big swing and fouled it off and took about five steps out toward the mound, looking me straight in the eye. I just asked him if we had a problem. It was a rhetorical question because, clearly, he’s got a problem with me. I don’t exactly know what it is, but whatever the case, he came out and I asked him what the issue was and he said, ‘Yeah, I got a problem with you.’ That was it. Everybody else was out there by that point in time. The game goes on. I don’t want to spend any more mental effort thinking about Carlos Gomez.

The series resumes on Tuesday night as Dallas Keuchel will oppose Cole Hamels. It will be interesting to see if the drama bleeds over into this one.

In the bottom of the second inning of Monday night’s game at Busch Stadium, Cubs shortstop Addison Russell dove into the stands down the left field line in an attempt to catch a foul ball. A Cardinals fan holding a tray of nachos was in Russell’s path and had his tasty treat knocked onto the dirt in front of the stands. Russell did the fan a solid, though, bringing him a new tray of nachos and posed for a selfie. The fan was also later seen taking selfies with other fans.

“A guy fell into him and got nacho cheese on his arm and now he’s taking pictures and signing autographs. It shows you where our society’s at right now with all that stuff.”

It wasn’t like Lester had a poor outing and that’s why he was salty. The lefty yielded just one run on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts over six innings. Lester just, uh, hates selfies, I guess? I’m also not sure how the whole scenario is a reflection of American society, unless he means that people can turn a disappointing situation into a fun and heartwarming situation.

At least Russell and Cubs manager Joe Maddon had a good sense of humor about it. Maddon said the whole thing was “pretty entertaining.” Russell said, “You don’t get between a man and his nachos.”